1000 MARBLES

A good friend shared this story with me and I had to share it with you, enjoy!

1000 marbles
By: Author Unknown

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps
it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to
rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at
work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning
are most enjoyable.

I'm a Ham radio operator and spend some time working with
radios and electronics. So when I heard this story it really
made me think! I hope that you will find some application in
your own life as well...

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack
with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning
paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday
morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to
hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on
my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap
net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap,
with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the
kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was telling whoever he was talking with
something about "a thousand marbles."

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job.
I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be
away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a
young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a
week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's
dance recital."

He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that
has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain his theory of "a thousand
marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.
The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know,
some live more and some live less, but on average, folks
live about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900
which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has
in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting
to the important part."

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about
all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had
lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to
thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had
about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble
they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to
roundup 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside
of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack
next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one
marble out and thrown it away."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused
more on the really important things in life. There is
nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out
to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with
you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning,
I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure
if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a
little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a
little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time
with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the
band. 75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT,
good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow
signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I
had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I
was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next
club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife
up with a kiss.

"C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we
spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at
a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

HAVE A GREAT WEEK... and may ALL of your Saturdays be
special!